 In 1986, Steve Cowper took office as the seventh governor of Alaska.

In the nation

 In 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. Adams ended up the winner.

 In 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis closed after seven months and some 20 million visitors.

 In 1913, the first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh.

 In 1942, nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the United States.

 In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus. Mrs. Parks was arrested, sparking a yearlong boycott of the buses by blacks.

 In 1958, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song" opened on Broadway.

 In 1969, the U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.

 In 1994, former TV evangelist Jim Bakker spent his first full day of freedom after time in prison, a halfway house and house arrest for bilking followers of his PTL ministry.

 In 1999, President Clinton addressed a World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, where he defended his administration's policies in the face of sometimes violent street demonstrations.